In 1858, a mysterious portal opened up between Earth and a fantastical land whose inhabitants called it "Westeros." First contact was made with the locals, and soon, relations were established between the crowned heads of Europe and King Robert, ruler of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. A decade later, Queen Victoria wishes to establish a permanent British embassy on Westerosi soil. And who better to send than a brave, fearless, explorative thrill-seeker like Sir Henry Flashman?
Flashman and the Throne of Swords is a crossover fanfic between George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman books and George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, published by Technomad
on FanFiction.Net. It is set shortly after the events of Flashman on the March and at the beginning of A Game of Thrones, with Flashman's escape from Abyssinia happening concurrently with the death of Jon Arryn. In his usual fashion, dear Flashy finds himself thrust into danger, meeting important figures, and barely escaping with his life, all the while building up an unwanted reputation as a valiant and dauntless hero.
The story has been ongoing since 2014, with the most recent chapter being posted in April of 2024. It may be found in its entirety here.
Flashman and the Throne of Swords contains examples of:
- Activist-Fundamentalist Antics: Among the British delegation are numerous missionaries, some of whom are too zealous for their own good. The most prominent is David Livingstone, who at one point gets arrested for preaching Christianity in a small Riverlands village and drawing the ire of the local septon. Isabel Burton also butts heads with many of the other Brits over her devout Catholicism.
- Aliens Speaking English: Lampshaded when Flashman points out how much of a staggeringly unlikely coincidence it is that this magical foreign world is full of people who speak a language almost identical to modern English.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Flashman's normally kind and reserved wife Elspeth storms up to Joffrey and cusses him out when she sees him physically abusing Sansa. Flashman notes that he'd never seen this side of her before, and he finds it both unnerving and attractive.
- The Caligula: Flashman is quick to identify Joffrey as a mad despot, and even directly compares him to Caligula several times. Seeing how he's met multiple tyrants in Asia and Africa, he's more qualified than most in making that declaration.
- Call-Back: Flashman constantly refers to his prior adventures, accompanied by footnotes referring to other Flashman novels. There's even a few Noodle Incidents that are never explained in full in either the fanfic nor the original books, including Flashman's participation in The American Civil War—on both sides, of course.
- Cowardly Lion: Despite constantly wanting to avoid danger and being scared shitless in the midst of any crisis, Flashman still finds himself instinctually jumping into the fray and doing something heroic.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance:
- Much like the original Flashman novels, Sir Harry Flashman has this in spades. He reflects all the social values of Victorian Britain's social elite, both positive and negative. For instance, he takes care to censor mild profanity like "damn" and "bitch," while using racial epithets that today would be considered indefensible slurs—sometimes in the very same sentence.
- Many of the British are disgusted at some of the norms of Westerosi society, such as child marriage, religious dogmatism, and the squalor of cities like King's Landing. As Flashman points out, some of those issues are present in British society too, but they simply turn a blind eye to it.
- Foreshadowing:
- Several chapters end with Flashman being relieved to head somewhere, only for him to write something to the effect of, "If I had known what terrible fate was waiting for me there, I never would have run right back to Britain."
- Any time where Flashman compares the mood to that before the retreat from Kabul or the Indian Rebellion, you know things are about to end poorly.
- Friendly Enemy: Despite having previously sold Flashman into slavery, and Flashman having previously tried to seduce his daughter, John Charity Spring has no qualms about working with Flashman on an official assignment and is perfectly affable the whole time. That being said, Flashman knows Spring has a Hair-Trigger Temper and is hyper-vigilant around him.
- Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: At several points, Flashman converses in foreign languages (Arabic with Richard Burton, German with Jan van der Decken, French with John Charity Spring) to prevent the Westerosi from eavesdropping in on them.
- Historical Domain Character: Historical characters who figure prominently in the story include Sir Richard Burton, his wife Isabel, and Dr. David Livingstone. Queen Victoria appears in the earlier chapters, and Lord Cardigan is mentioned regularly.
- Honor Before Reason: While preparing for his Trial by Combat, Flashman goads Ser Vardis Egan into fighting without armor by saying that the knight must be a coward if he fights an unarmored Englishman in full armor himself."In his shoes, assuming I'd been mad enough to offer myself willingly for a trial-by-combat, that taunt wouldn't have moved me an inch out of my steel clothes, but Ser Vardis was, like many other Westerosi knights, an honour-mad fool."
- Hypocrite: When being questioned by Mance Rayder about whether they're Human Traffickers, John Charity Spring swears up and down how the British despise slavery and fight for its abolition—with Flashman knowing full well that Spring previously worked as an illegal trader in "black ivory" for years.
- Medieval Morons: Pretty much every Brit in Westeros has a very low opinion of the locals, viewing them as backwards, supersticious and barbaric.
- The Mutiny: While in the far North, John Charity Spring and Flashman are abandoned by Spring's crew, who flee back to their ship in the night and sail straight back for England. Flashman silently speculates that, considering Spring's history of killing crewmen for petty infractions, it may have been a Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal.
- Of Corset Hurts: Westerosi fashion lacks corsets, and it's mentioned that the wives of British attachés are more than eager to forego them in favor of more comfortable local styles when they have the chance.
- Really Gets Around: Flashman has no qualms with sleeping with multiple women throughout the story when he's traveling across Westeros. He suspects his wife Elspeth does the same too when he's away from home, but concedes that he doesn't mind too much as long as she avoids getting caught or having a child out of wedlock.
- Shout-Out: Two of the members of the British delegation are Edmund Blackadder and his dimwitted manservant Baldrick.
- Smart People Know Latin: John Charity Spring, a former Oxford don turned Psycho for Hire slave trader, loves using Gratuitous Latin phrases in nearly every conversation.
- Stations of the Canon: Harry's presence has relatively little effect on the canon, with major events often playing out near-identically to the books' plot. Even things that seem like they'll be massive plot divergences, such as Arya taking shelter at the British embassy, don't last very long before things return to the book's plot line.
- Technology Uplift:
- The British were more than happy to sell firearms and cannons to King Robert to outfit a royal army, but made sure to only sell outdated muskets, and refuse to divulge the recipe for gunpowder so they can maintain a monopoly.
- The Dutch merchant Jan van der Decken makes a living buying cheap old machinery such as clocks in Europe and reselling them in Westeros, where they're centuries ahead of anything they have there.
- On Flashman's expedition to Dragonstone, he discovers that the French are selling rifles and Minié balls (which are far newer and deadlier than musket balls) to Stannis Baratheon.
- On their journey back from beyond the Wall, Flashman and John Charity Spring offer to trade muskets to both the wildlings and the Night's Watch. Flashman muses about what effects this will have on their conflicts.
- On the flipside, Westerosi wines such as Arbor Gold are far superior to anything found in Europe. The vinters in Europe have absolutely no idea how the wines are made and so the Westerosi winemakers earn some very handsome profits selling them.
- Think Nothing of It: Several times, after doing various heroic deeds, Flashman or other Britons are praised highly by the witnesses. Their reaction is to modestly claim that this is all in a day's work for them, and nothing to make a fuss about.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: When Flashman first goes to the Twins, he wonders why all the Freys look so familiar... until he realizes that they all remind him of "Gatehouse Ami" Frey, whom he had slept with earlier in the story.
- White Man's Burden: The British characters frequently talk of "civilizing" the Westerosi by introducing them to British law, European literature, and Christianity. While Flashman agrees it would be a good thing, he harbors no delusions about Easy Evangelism.
